The man standing in front of me was massive. Like, the kind of guy who considers a missed day at the gym a tragedy. His biceps were each the size of my head; a fact I got a good comparison of when I was lifted off my feet and tossed out of the apartment and against the hallway wall, head first. The wind knocked out of me, I struggled to find which way was up - let alone how to get to my feet.
Dimly, I heard the door slam shut to my apartment. "Fuck..." I groaned, staggering to my feet. I tried the handle to no success. The asshole had locked it. I slumped against the heavy wooden door and sighed, massaging my temples trying to clear the massive headache that was building from the head injury I just sustained.
The scream that came from my apartment shook me back to reality.
Kelly was in there, with him.
Frantic rage filled my body as I started pounding on the door. I tried to think through my options, how I could get back into my own home. My keys were inside, sitting on the kitchen counter. Our windows were locked - and besides, I wasn't about to be able to scale a building up to its third floor to get to them anyway. That left the door... a door I either had to break down, or pray one of them opened on their own.
I focused on kicking the door. I had read somewhere once upon a time that the best place to strike a door you wanted to break down was near the doorknob, so that's where I got to work. With each slam of the heel of my foot, my headache cleared, and my focus sharpened.
'So, you're the one fucking with my girl, huh?'
The man's words rang through my head, and it dawned on me that I knew who this was. Who else would claim that Kelly was 'his girl' other than her sponsor? The very person she'd snubbed just earlier in the morning was now here to claim her for himself. My blood ran cold, and for a moment my assault on the door stalled, before doubling in effort.
"There is... no way... that bastard... is getting Kelly..." I grunted, switching to slamming my full weight on the door. The creaking stress of the wood was my only encouragement, and I swore to any powers that were listening that I'd go to the gym after this, if we got through this ok.
As though an answer to my prayers, the door broke - not with a simple crack, but with the force of an explosion. The thick wood burst into my apartment in large, limb-sized chunks, showering our furniture and floor space with the debris. For a moment, I wanted to yell and celebrate - how often does someone break down a solid wood door, after all - but I had a mission. I sprinted to the bedroom Kelly and I shared, looking for her when I heard voices behind me.
I doubled back out into the living room in time to watch Kelly and the man emerge from her office. She was dressed now, wearing a naughty schoolgirl outfit we had done one of our earlier photoshoots in. She looked terrified, tugging the checkered skirt as low as she could, trying to cover her front and her ass from any angle possible.
I watched, horrified, as this guy reached up and grabbed my sister's chest, squeezing her breasts in front of me as he showed off how she was wearing nothing more than the sheer blouse to try and contain her chest. I looked up from Kelly, looking into his eyes as he met my gaze with a wicked grin.
"Come on, Kel," he grumbled, his voice rough and gravelly. Without much care for being gentle, he took Kelly by the arm and pulled her along out of the apartment. Kelly's frantic eyes looked at the exploded door across our carpet, then up at me, pleading with me to do something - anything - to save her from this monster.
Before I knew it, I was running at him, swinging my fist back into a punch that connected squarely into his side. "You let her go, you asshole!" I snarled, throwing another wild punch at him. Despite our size difference, I was making him flinch and pull away, and he actually let Kelly go. In the blink of an eye, she was gone, darting out the front door of the apartment.
Kelly's sponsor watched where she had run to, before slowly turning back to me. "You'll regret that, you little..." his voice trailed off, and I could see in his eyes that he was thinking about what to do to me. For the second time in a matter of minutes, I was off my feet again, this time with a hand the size of a baseball mitt wrapped around my throat. I sputtered and choked, my feet limply kicking against the solid muscles of this man.
My vision started to blur at the same time as all the sounds in the room seemed further away than usual, and I realized dimly that I was going to lose consciousness. Somehow that felt scarier than anything else he could do to me at that moment. My panicking became weaker as I tried to break free of his grasp, before he tossed me aside once again, though fortunately this time I hit the couch. As I bounced and recovered, I watched this guy quickly walk out of our apartment, presumably heading after Kelly. Only hesitating long enough to grab my phone and keys, I sprinted after him as quickly as I could.
Our apartment building only had a single elevator, a fact he gleefully enjoyed as he stood behind the closing doors, watching me chase down the hall after him. Frowning, I turned to the stairs and started to march my way down them. Exhausted and winded - and having renewed my promise to go to the gym multiple times over - I made it to the bottom of the stairs to find him already getting in his car.
